LEGAL UPDATES VOL 31, DECEMBER 2021

LEGAL UPDATES
VOL 31, DECEMBER 2021

Dear Valued Clients and Partners,

ADK Vietnam Lawyers would like to introduce to you the Legal Updates, Vol 31 of December 2021 with new legal provisions with notable contents as follows:

1. Law on Vietnamese Guest Workers bans charging workers with broker fees

Law on Vietnamese Guest Workers shall take effect from 01/01/2022.

Notably, charging workers with broker fees is amongst prohibited acts in bringing Vietnamese workers to work overseas which is stated in Article 7 of the Law. Moreover, working abroad or bringing Vietnamese workers to work abroad in any of the following professions:

- Massage staffs in restaurants, hotels, or entertainment centers;

- Professions that require regular contact with explosives, toxic substances in metal (copper, lead, mercury, silver, zinc) works; manganese, dioxide, mercury;

- Professions that require contact with exposed radiation sources or professions that include extraction of radioactive ores;

- Manufacturing and packaging professions that require regular contact with nitric acid, sodium sulfate, disulfur of carbons, pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides, antiseptic and highly toxic insecticide;

- Professions that include hunting dangerous beasts, crocodiles or sharks;

- Professions that require regular stay in hypoxia or high-pressure environment (underground or seabed);

- Professions that include shrouding, cremating or bone collecting.

2. National Assembly adopts Resolution on guiding the organization of online trials

Resolution No. 33/2021/QH15 on guiding the organization of e-trials shall take effect from 01/01/2022. Accordingly, courts are entitled to hold online court sessions for first-instance trial and appellate trial of criminal, civil and administrative cases with simple circumstances and characteristics; documents and evidence in the case file are clear. The online trial will not apply to the following cases:

- Criminal, civil and administrative cases related to state secrets;

- A criminal case regarding one of the crimes of infringing upon national security specified in Chapter XIII of the Penal Code;

- A criminal case for one of the crimes of undermining peace, against humanity and war crimes specified in Chapter XXVI of the Penal Code.

An online trial is a trial held in a courtroom, using electronic devices connected through the network environment, allowing the accused, victims, litigants, and other participants in the proceedings to participate in the court hearing at a location outside the courtroom decided by the Court while directly and fully monitoring the images and sounds and participating in the proceedings and procedures of the court hearing by word of mouth and actions continuously, publicly, simultaneously are ensured.

3. UNESCO adopted the first draft of Recommendation on the Ethics of AI

On 25/11/2021, UNESCO member states adopted the first Draft of the Ethical Recommendations on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (“Recommendations”). Accordingly, the Recommendation “defines the common values and principles needed to ensure the healthy development of AI", and aims at ensuring the ethical development of artificial intelligence (“AI”) by “addressing issues around transparency, accountability, and privacy.”

The Recommendation states that all actors in the AI system life cycle should respect, protect and promote human rights, recognize and promote environment and ecosystem flourishing, and establish data protection frameworks and governance mechanisms, enhance the “transparency and explainability” of AI systems. The Recommendation also encourages member states to conduct ethical impact assessments, to ensure proper security and data protection measures, and to cooperate internationally for the use of artificial intelligence in all areas of development, for example, education, economic development; to assess the environmental impact of AI, to ensure that AI will contribute to gender equality, to disseminate AI knowledge to the public, and “endeavor to employ effective AI systems for improving human health and protecting the right to life.”

We hope you found this brief legal update informative.

Kind regards.

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